Football
ESPN staff 7y

Sol Campbell: I would take non-league job to kick-start managerial career

Former Arsenal, Tottenham and England defender Sol Campbell has told the Guardian he would be prepared to take a job in non-league football as he looks to break into management.

Campbell, 42, is eager to use his wide-ranging experience in a managerial role but said he had struggled to find a way in.

"It's proving difficult, and if I have to start at the bottom I will," he said.

"People may think that I just want to manage in the Premier League, but I'm prepared to go to a non-league club, and if they can't pay me a salary just pay me a win bonus.

"I'm up for that. I won't be up for that four or five years down the line, but definitely for the first year.

"I'm itching to start. I just need a chance, even just an interview in which I can say: 'Take me for free and I'll show you what I can do.'"

Campbell, who ended his playing career a little over five years ago, has a UEFA pro licence and is working as assistant coach of Trinidad and Tobago as they try to reach the 2018 World Cup finals.

But his said he had had only received "tentative inquiries" about club work, adding: "If I don't impress you in an interview then fine, but at least give me that chance.

"That's all I want; to talk to a chairman or owner about my philosophy and what I can do for their team."

Campbell added that he was "a winner" and said: "I love to build. I've got great ideas. I've got the passion.

"I'm a doer and I just want to do it. Whatever attitudes, prejudices, stereotypical ideas are in front of me, I will break them.

"But the only way I can break them is by getting a job, and if I need to start in the gutter, I will start in the gutter and work my way up."

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